Last night we went to a "Thanksgiving party" hosted by a guy from Knoxville, TN and his wife who is Japanese. The food was great and the people were rather nice. There were a few American guys, a few Aussie guys, a kiwi (new Zealander) guy, and one Singaporean guy. All the women, with the exception of myself were Asian, either Japanese or S'porean. That was a little weird for me, but everyone was extremely pleasant. I'd like to be as open minded as possible at this point.
One potential gaffe of the night: A Brit put me on the spot and asked if I thought America was "the best democracy in the world", to me this is a very loaded question, how do you answer that? I said I believed we have one of the better systems, and that truthfully it is impossible to compare the U.S.A. to say Canada, because the U.S.A. is so powerful. Then I said I thought Americans had a catch-22 in foreign policy where we're damned if we do and damned if we don't for every thing we do. The British guy seemed okay with this answer, but I felt very shrill and strident afterwards having been baited into a political debate straight off the plane.
I fear this post may seem too....I don't know, but too something. We're having a good time, and fortunate to already have made the acquantance of so many people.